|
|
Kim
Rating:
Review
I remember reading this book in high school, because I had to, and liking it. I reread it a few years later and fell in love with it. The Finch family is remarkable and fascinating and warm and human. The narrator, Scout, is an eight-year-old tomboy, growing up in early 1900s Maycomb, Alabama with her father, Atticus, brother Jem and their cook, Calpurnia. Most of the story revolves around two different events: Scout and Jem, and with the help of a neighbor boy, Dill, concoct a plan involving one of their neighbors, and Atticus defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. Other ordinary life events occur in Maycomb, and Ms. Lee’s simple prose tells it like it is. Or was, since it is common knowledge that in the early 1900s, the South wasn’t always a fair and accommodating place to live. This is my number one favorite novel, and I recommend it often.
Best Line:
“Hey Boo, I said.”
Suzanne
Rating:
Review
This tale of the American South, written before the civil rights legislation of the 1960’s, is special because of the charming voice in which it’s told, that of a little girl called Scout. Her tomboyish nature and naiveté shine through on every page as she tells us all about the people in her rural town. Scout’s wild imaginings about her neighbors and funny antics with her brother Jem and friend Dill made me smile, as did her reaction to being pressured to act like a lady: “I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me…” The story repeatedly touches on underlying attitudes which make up her town’s class society, leading up to a trial where Scout’s father Atticus is the defense lawyer for a “Negro” wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Harper points out much of what was wrong with traditional Southern society, but manages to be compassionate in doing so. The choice of such an innocent voice is what makes this a modern classic, and lends dignity to a story dealing with the ugly theme of racial prejudice.
Best Line:
“Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand…” (pg. 93)
|
|
